St. Mark’s unbeaten string intact

MENDHAM - The St. Mark's eighth grade girls
basketball team took a 73-61 victory over Our Lady of Assumption to
push their record to 2-0.

The tone of the game was set in the first
quarter, where St. Mark's raced out to a 22-10 lead. Shayna
Ericksen scored twice off feeds from Amanda Pakutka and followed it
with a foul shot to grab a 5-2 lead.

Assumption tied it at 5 before St. Mark's
went on an 8-0 run. Ericksen hit again off a nice pass from Jessie
Angle. Amy McQuaide found Angle on a fast break before scoring
herself off a steal and a layup and a foul shot. Angle hit a short
jumper and St. Mark's led 14-5.

Assumption cut it to 14-10 and had momentum
but Ericksen answered with a layup. After two technical foul calls
on the Assumption bench, Ericksen hit three foul shots to push the
lead back to 19-10.

Emily Delaney hit a fast break layup and
Ericksen hit a foul shot for the 22-10 first quarter
lead.

The second quarter saw an offensive outburst
by both teams. Assumption cut the lead to 27-22 with St. Mark's
scoring when Pakutka hit McQuaide for a layup and followed it with
a shot of her own. Dana Paz forced a turnover that lead to a layup
by Kelly Kavanaugh to make it 29-22.

Assumption made it 29-25 before McQuaide was
fouled. She hit the front end of a one and one and Ericksen got
the offensive rebound on the second shot and put it back in to make
it 32-25.

Summer Koop hit a layup and Pakutka followed
with a short jumper for a 36-28 lead.

As the quarter ended, St. Mark's pounded it
inside and Ericksen scored more off feeds from Kavanaugh and
McQuaide. Summer Koop, Pakutka and Kavanaugh also hit and St.
Mark's pushed the lead back to 47-34 as the first half
ended.

Every time Assumption seemed to be gaining
ground, St. Mark's answered with some timely baskets.

In the third quarter, St. Mark's started to
put the game out of reach. Angle scored off a fast break pass from
Koop. Dana Paz had a steal that led to a layup by Koop and Angle
threw an incredible outlet pass to Delaney for a layup.

McQuaide fed Koop down low for a bucket and
Delaney threaded a pass into Angle for a short jumper. Nicki
Drzewinski was fouled when she scored off an offensive rebound and
put the foul shot in for the 61-44 lead a the end of three
quarters.

In the fourth quarter, St. Mark's pushed
the lead out to 19 points. Koop fed Angle, who would finish with
nine points, for a layup and Delaney followed with one of her
own.

Angle and Ericksen each scored down low off
passes from Kavanaugh and Ericksen, who would finish with 29
points, hit two foul shots. McQuaide scored off a nice back door
layup to close out the scoring for St. Mark's , giving her 10
points for the game, and the game ended at 73-61 for the St. Mark's
win.

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